Thirst 4 Blood 2
by RealityEngineer
Summary: A semi-sequel to Thirst 4 Blood. It will consist of several "Films" each comprised of four "Episodes", much like the feel of the actual Left 4 Dead.
1. Episode One : The Beginning

**Thirst 4 Blood 2**

**Going Under**

_"The Lifeguard is NOT On Duty"_

**Episode One**

**The Beginning**

Jonathon awoke with a start. He frowned. Something was wrong. Everything felt... different. He threw on his favorite white Freerunner jacket and got out of bed. He washed his face and, out of instinct, pocketed his switchblade. He walked outside of his room to find the hallways dark and bloodstained. He was frozen in place, eyes wide.

"What the hell...?" he flipped out his switchblade and continued slowly down the hallway. There were drag marks in the blood, leading around the corner to the stairwell. There he found somebody hunched in the corner, moving gently.

"You okay over there?" he asked. The figure turned. Blood dripped from his lips. His face was pale and his eyes were bright yellow. It snarled, getting up and dropping the remaining pieces of corpse from its hands. "Oh shit..." It started at Jonathon, running at a dead sprint. He dodged out of the way, the peculiar thing slamming into the wall behind him. Out of some sort of primal instinct, he stabbed the thing in the back of the head. The creature let out a pained sigh and slid down the wall. Sighing, Jonathon turned around. Starting up the stairwell, he came face to face with a man in a black suit, holding a gun.

"Duck," the man demanded, in a slightly Italian accent.

"What...?"

"DUCK!" He shoved Jonathon out of the way, firing a shot and putting a bullet through the creature's skull, who had obviously started for Jonathon when he wasn't looking. "These things ain't going to stop for nothing, not just some little scrape with that toothpick." Jonathon felt slightly insulted, his only weapon being a "toothpick" to this strange new man. "Here, take this." He flipped the pistol around, handing it to Jonathon.

"Really?" He was feeling less insulted now as he took the pistol and pocketed the switchblade. The man in the dark suit smiled, pulling out another gun from beneath his jacket.

"S'alright," he said, grinning. "The name's Victor. From the Bronx."

"I'm Jonathon. From New York." Victor nodded. "What the hell was that?"

"Well ain't it obvious? Zombies, kiddo. Honest to god zombies. I don't know what the hell caused it, though... No radiation or meteors or shit. Maybe it's a virus or something, I don't know. What I DO know is that we've got to get off this ship, A.S.A.P." Jonathon nodded. This man was right. But he had to ask...

"Say, where'd you get the guns?" Victor smiled.

"Best not to ask things you don't wanna know, 'ey, kiddo?" With this, Victor walked up the stairwell, Jonathon following close behind.

"How are we going to get off?"

"Don't quite know yet," Victor replied. They were on the 4th floor heading up, the ship spanning a massive 30 floors down. "We'll find a way. Maybe a lifeboat or something." Jonathon nodded. Sounded good. As they were walking, Jonathon stopped. Maybe it was his ears playing tricks on him... no, there it was again!

"Hey, do you hear that?" he asked. Victor stopped. It was a soft cry for help.

"Yeah, I think I do. Sounds like a woman?" Jonathon nodded. "Well we ought to go help her."

"That's what I was thinking," Jonathon replied, hefting his pistol to bear.

"Ready, kid?"

"Somewhat..."

"Alright, let's go." Victor started through the halls, checking each room by knocking first, then opening the door. If it didn't open, he shot the lock off with his pistol and entered quietly, sweeping with his pistol before either dispatching any zombies inside or moving on. Finally, a long ways away from the stairwell, and down several halls, he knocked on a door, expecting no reply.

"Hello?" came a voice suddenly, from within. "Who's there?"

"It's alright, ma'am, we're survivors," Victor said.

"Really?" A small slit opened so the woman could see through. "Oh thank god!" She opened the door, falling into Jonathon's arms.

"Uh, hi..." he said awkwardly.

"My name's Maria," she said. "I'm a trauma center nurse."

"I'm Victor, or Vick. This is Jonathon." Jon nodded in agreement.

"Nice to meet you both. What's going on?"

"We were hoping you could tell us," Jon said grimly. "You're the medical expert, after all. We don't really know what the hell's happening."

"I don't know. I've never seen or heard of anything like it. Well... except, of course..."

"In the movies," Victor finished. She nodded. "Yeah. We already thought that too. Well, we're going to find a way off this godforsaken ship. You coming along?"

"Oh, yes, please!" she cried.

"You got yourself a weapon, pretty lady?" She shook her head. Victor sighed. "Here, take this one. I'll find something." She thanked him and took the pistol in her hands. It was a bit heavier to her than Jon, he realized as he saw her holding it slightly awkwardly.

"C'mon, we got to go," Victor said. They started back for the stairwell, killing off a few zombies as they went. Finally, they were above deck.

"Funny," Victor started, looking up and shielding his eyes with his forearm, "how the sun can be shining when such heinous shit is going down." Jonathon nodded.

"Amen to that."

"Uh, guys?" Maria asked. They looked to her then followed her gaze. The deck was FULL of zombies. All of which had now been alerted to their presence, and were sprinting at them.

"Victor, you shoot better," Maria said, handing him his pistol.

"Don't mind if I do," Victor said, grinning as he fired expertly, missing hardly any shots, and getting most in the head. They sighed when the zombies had finally been killed, and Victor handed Maria back the gun. He noticed a few of the people were dressed in uniform, and went over.

"Jackpot!" he cried, pulling out two pistols from the guard's holsters. "Alright, now we can rock." He smiled and continued onward, making sure there were no zombies.

The ship's deck itself was about the size of an aircraft carrier, if not slightly smaller. The ship was the highest class cruise ship of its time, and sported a pool, golf course, 20 floors of living quarters, 5 floors of dining, and 5 floors of showcasing.

"Look at this," Jon said, pilfering the pockets of another guard. "A VIP card. I never got to go to the Museum Deck. What's down there anyway?"

"Just some old stuff- Wait..." Victor's eyes flashed. "There's a submarine down there. And if it's not functional, I'm SURE there's scuba gear!"

"You positive?" Maria said, hope lining her voice.

"Dead positive," Victor said, smiling slightly at the pun. "We just need to get down there first.

"Why not just bring the ship to land?" Jon asked.

"If the infection hasn't spread to the mainland yet, we can't let that happen. We have to contain it somehow." Jon nodded. It made sense.

"Alright. Let's go, then." Victor nodded and they headed towards the staircase. A few floors down, they saw a red metal door marked "SAFE ROOM" with informative posters from the CDC plastered all over it.

"What's inside?" Victor asked as he opened the door. Inside were informative posters on the virus in question, as well as samples of virus tissue, food, water, a few weapons, and a pile of ammo. "We're in heaven!" He ran inside. "Close that door behind you, we don't want anything getting in after us. If they're above deck, let them STAY above deck." Jon nodded, closing the large metal door and setting the bar in place, securing it from opening.

Their journey had begun.


	2. Episode Two : Medicinal Research

**Episode Two**

**Medicinal Research**

"This is amazing!" Maria said, going through the posters and samples. "They've set up a miniature CDC lab right here! I could do so much research! You two don't mind if I do, do you?" They shrugged.

"Go right ahead," Victor encouraged. She grinned and looked through some of the research files as the two helped themselves to some food. "Wait, listen to this. 'The virus evolves, as all other viruses, but it appears this virus mutates to better attune the host to the surroundings, rather than the virus to the immunities. In essence, the virus is able to MUTATE the hosts into several strains of different infected, so as to further increase the infection rate'. It evolves us."

"That's creepy," Jon commented, mouth full of Twinkies.

"Creepy, yes, but also very interesting. It looks like they only have samples of some of the infected, but records of others. Think you guys can bring me back some blood samples?"

"We've got to risk our tails to get some zombie blood?" Jon asked. She nodded. He sighed. "Damnit... Fine. But I won't like it." She grinned and nodded.

"Here are a few syringes. They describe something that pounces it's victims and attempts to tear them apart, something that jumps on your back and tries to run you around, and, it says here this one's EXTREMELY dangerous, some sort of creature that is huddled up and cries. When startled, it attacks with huge claws and attempts to rip you apart."

"Well all of these sound like a walk in the park," Victor said smiling. Jon couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. "So where do we find these daisies?"

"I'm guessing on deck, if these reports have already been filed about them." Victor nodded.

"Alright, then. Can we kill them first?"

"It's preferred that you do. Just don't take any samples from where you shot them. I don't want to have to extract lead if it isn't already in the blood samples."

"Then I guess we're off." Victor and Jonathon headed out of the Safe Room and Maria slid the bar into place behind them.

"Where should we go first?" Jonathon asked.

"I don't know. Let's just look around." Jon nodded and they wandered for a while. They explored the rooms, finding interesting things, like women who had been naked, lying dead where they were at the time of infection, booze in some of the mini-fridges in the higher class cabins (which Victor drank quickly after), and miscellaneous other things throughout the rooms. But, finally, they found one of the infected strains they were after.

As Victor was downing a bottle of booze, he let the bottle drop to the floor and break. Jonathon was busying himself brushing it under the bed when he heard a low growling noise. He slowly turned to the door where a peculiar figure was crouched, wearing a jacket with the hood up to discern any facial features. Crouched on all fours, the creature slowly started forward. Victor came out of the bathroom after having vomited up all of the alcohol in his system to see the creature. The crouched figure, startled by this newcomer, pounced, aiming for Victor. It tackled him to the ground, attempting to rip at him with his claws, before Jonathon came over and kicked it in the face. Its skull collapsed inward, destroying the brain and the creature ceased to attack, falling over dead. Victor got up, gasping for breath.

"Thanks, man... I'm guessing this is that Pouncer she was looking for?" Jonathon nodded.

"Yeah. Pouncer... no, it was more hunting us. I think I may have seen it out of the corner of my eye down the hallway a bit. It's more of a Hunter."

"Hunter... I like it." Victor stabbed the syringe into the now soft part of the Hunter's exposed skull, taking a good amount of blood. "I'll write it on here so we know. 'HUNTER'." He put it back in the padded case Maria had provided them so the syringes wouldn't break. "What's next?"

"Next is the one that jockeys you around."

"Alright, let's go find him." Though this was easier said than done. They searched for a long deal of time without finding any sort of creature. They found a large, bloated figure that vomited some sort of vile, zombie-attracting substance, which they named the Puker, a zombie with a long tongue that emitted some sort of noxious gas which Victor so perversely named the Tounger, before making several perverted comments about it, and a zombie in a straight jacket that screamed and attracted other zombies, which they named the Screamer. But no jockeying zombie.

"This is tough!" Victor said, wrapping gauze around the wound on his arm he'd contracted. "Fuck, man." He sighed, sitting down in a large, comfy armchair they'd found, rubbing his temples. Jonathon heard some weird noise, like a maniacal laughing, but far off.

"You hear that?" Jon asked. Victor shrugged.

"Go check it out," he suggested. Jon shifted awkwardly before nodding and heading down the hallway. The laughing became louder and louder, until Jonathon stepped on a board, making a creaking noise, and the laughing stopped. He put his ear to the door he thought he'd heard it in, then stepped back a few steps, squinting at it. Suddenly, the door burst open, and a deformed looking infected jumped onto his back, squealing with heinous, demented laughter.

Jonathon struggled with the creature, but it just laughed and continued to jockey him around blindly. Suddenly, he felt a sting in his shoulder and fell to the ground. The creature twitched a few times before Victor shot it in the face. He held his pistol, smoking from the execution, in one hand, and a combat shotgun in the other. He helped Jonathon into the armchair, looking to his shoulder and frowning.

"Sorry," Victor said. "I got you good, didn't I?" Jonathon didn't know what he was talking about. He looked down and moaned, wishing he hadn't. A large bullet hole, obviously from a shotgun slug, had penetrated his shoulder, miraculously missing too much bone or any arteries, but it was bleeding profusely.

"This is going to hurt a lot, okay kid?" Jonathon nodded, gritting his teeth. He cried out as Victor pried the bullet from his shoulder, and almost screamed when he sprayed it with antiseptic. He wrapped it in gauze and patted it gently. "Move it around a bit, see if it hurts too bad." He rotated his left arm in a circle around the joint. It didn't hurt that bad.

"Nope, it's good," he said, smiling weakly. Victor nodded.

"Don't use it for your gun," he advised as he stabbed the creature with a syringe, taking the blood out. Jonathon nodded appreciatively. Suddenly, there was a moan. A long, sad moan, followed by several racking sobs. "This is it. The last one. We got the Hunter, and the Puppeteer. Now we need to kill this Bitch."

"Bitch? Really, Victor? How about Witch?"

"Eh. Nonetheless, you stay here. I'll kill it."

"No, she said it was extremely dangerous. I'll come for backup." Victor frowned, then nodded.

"Alright. Follow about 10 feet behind me." Jonathon nodded, and Victor started leading the way, Jon in tow. As they wandered, the crying increased in volume. Checking each room carefully, they finally found the source: a female public bathroom.

"You've got to be joking me," Jonathon mumbled quietly. Victor put his finger to his lips, a sign to stay silent. They slowly pushed open the door to assure it didn't creak, then entered quietly. The lights were dim and flickering, giving very short, dim glimpses of the room. They saw a figure, huddled in a corner, crying softly, fingertips replaced with talon-like claws. Its eyes were piercing red.

"That's that Witch thing," Victor said gently, Jon nodding.

"How're you going to kill it without startling it? I have a feeling we can't get too close." Victor paused a moment, thinking hard and looking around. Finally, his eyes sparked and he smiled as he had an idea. Ever so slowly, he laid down onto his belly, surveying the area around the Witch. Then he got back up.

"Alright, here's the deal," he whispered in Jonathon's ear. "I'm going to turn on the lights. Hopefully that'll stun her long enough for us to blow out the bolts on those stall doors. The stalls will collapse on her then we can finish her off while she's pinned." Jonathon nodded, surprised at the brilliance of the plan. "Alright, ready?" Jon nodded. "One... two... three!" He flipped on the lights. The Witch looked up, gasping, then started groaning, rising to her feet. The two dropped to the ground, Victor firing blind shots with his shotgun, Jonathon attempting to target the bolts with his pistol. One of the stalls finally heaved and collapsed onto the female zombie, now crying out in pain.

Victor ran over, leveling his shotgun as he did, and squeezed the trigger, firing a clear shot into the Witch's skull. The being was silent. Victor sighed and shoved the needle under her skin, getting the last blood sample.

"C'mon, let's head back." They began traversing the metal labyrinth once more, getting "lost" a few times, Victor incidentally finding a bottle or two of beer when they had.

Finally, they'd reached the Safe Room once more. They heard yelling from inside and started beating on the door, thinking the worst. The bar slid off and the two rushed in, finding Maria screaming over a radio that had been set up.

"You can't do that! There are PEOPLE onboard!"

"_I'm sorry, ma'am. We just can't risk it. We've been told to take the ship down, no matter what._"

"Wait, what?!" Jonathon yelled. "Take down the ship? How?" Maria sighed.

"They're planning on using a missile from a submarine. They're going to sink us."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Victor slammed his hand on the table. "We have your god damn samples, by the way." He set the case down on the table, picking up the microphone.

"Listen here, you. We've got at least three people still alive on this goddamn ship! You have to evacuate us!"

"_Can't do that, sir. We've been given strict orders from the President of the United States himself._"

"God damnit, listen to yourself talk! You're condemning innocent people to death! You can't do this!"

"_We can and we will. Now I advise you find a way off that ship before we fire the missile. You've got two hours. Not like anything can really get off there anyway, aside from people like you._"

"God damnit!" Victor slammed the mic onto the table. "We've got to get below deck, to the submarine, before they sink this ship. They nodded. Maria bundled several of the other samples and the reports into a backpack and slung it over her shoulder, holding her pistol.

"Let's go." They nodded. This was going to be hectic.


	3. Episode Three : Panic!

**Thirst 4 Blood 2**

**Going Under**

**Episode Three**

**Panic!**

"C'mon..." Victor said, pressing the buttons on the elevator. "Damnit! The elevator's down... and the stairs are blocked by that Safe Room. What next?" Jonathon paused a minute.

"We could, you know, just scale down the shaft." Victor shrugged.

"Risky... but our only option. Alright, help me get this elevator door open." He grabbed one door and Jonathon grabbed the other, the two prying hard on the doors, first only getting a sliver open, then finally getting a handhold and pulling the two apart. Maria came over and placed a long, thick piece of wood, probably from a bed, between the doors, propping them open. The elevator was below them. The three stepped into the elevator shaft just in time for the wood to snap, the doors closing and plunging them into absolute darkness.

"Fuck!" Victor cried.

"What's going on?" Maria shouted.

"Quiet down! I got this." Jonathon turned on his phone, the dim light illuminating the dark. "We just have to open the emergency hatch, drop into the elevator, and get into the next floor." They nodded. Sweeping over the elevator, they finally found the hatch and unlatched it. At that moment, the elevator creaked and the three froze.

"Did you guys hear that?" Jonathon whispered. They nodded. Slowly, they descended into the elevator, the red lights flashing now due to the "emergency" status.

"This door's locked too. C'mon, help me get it open." Victor and Jonathon pulled again, prying the doors apart. Suddenly, the elevator lurched a few inches, almost loosening their grip on the door.

"Shit! This thing's going to fall any second!" Maria assisted this time, pulling on Jonathon's side. The doors were finally open and Jonathon scrambled through, holding the doors at bay as Maria crawled inside as well.

"C'mon!" Jonathon cried, holding his hand out to Victor. The elevator lurched again, this time a few feet. The elevator was halfway down the door. Victor grabbed Jonathon's hand, climbing up and inside the door. They fell away from the doors, which slammed closed immediately after they'd stopped holding it. There was a loud creaking, then a whoosh as the elevator fell, and a crash as it plummeted to the bottom of the ship.

"We made it..." Maria said softly, sitting down to rest her muscles.

"We just made it down one story. Let's not throw a party..." Jonathon mumbled. "We have to keep moving. What floor are we on?" He looked up to the elevator monitor and found that the elevator was supposed to be on floor 11. "Alright, we're already eleven floors down. We just have to keep moving downward and we'll find the sub." The others nodded. "C'mon." They headed to the stairwell, finding that the Safe Room took up much of this stairwell as well. They had to crawl under it to get down half of the stairs, then they could make it out of the stairs.

They made it down about ten more flights of stairs before furniture impeded their path. Someone had attempted to make a makeshift barricade, proving only to impede the path of others.

"Well damnit..." Jonathon said. "We'll have to find another way down. We may have to split up." The others nodded. "Victor, you and Maria head to the left, I'll go to the right. We'll meet back here in about ten minutes. We don't have time to waste."

"Sure you don't want to take Maria? I'm more experienced with a gun," Victor commented. Jonathon shook his head.

"No, I'm fine. You guys go." They nodded and headed off down the left end of the hallway, Jonathon to the right. He searched through several rooms to no avail. At one point, however, he found the former security guard's office, full of said guards. He gunned them down and found a cache of ammunition and guns. Grinning, he put on two holsters for pistols and one for an assault rifle, which he took with him. He put his pistols away, wielding the automatic rifle, and set off again.

Finding nothing, he started back for the stairwell.

"Hey... you..." He turned, looking back into the security guard's office. Entering slowly, sweeping with his automatic rifle, he noticed someone in the cell that he hadn't seen before. "Let me out... please...?"

"What're you in there for? I don't want to let out a murderer." The boy inside laughed.

"No, no... It was a demonstration. I was here on a field trip. Apparently it's tradition for the guards to take one of our kids every trip and lock them up. When they did, though, they started getting sick. I was safe behind this big door. C'mon, just get the keys off the guard and let me out." Jonathon pondered this for a moment, then nodded, realizing that even if this WAS a killer, at least that'd give him weapon experience.

He unlocked the door and the kid walked out, smiling. He grabbed a shotgun and some pistols, holstering them in the same fashion as Jonathon.

"I saw what those things do. I need weapons too, right?" Jon nodded.

"C'mon. We're getting off the boat."

"How?"

"The submarine below deck. It should still be somewhat operational." The boy nodded and followed him down the hallway at a quick walk.

"What's your name?"

"Jonathon. You?"

"Leon. Nice to meet you." Jonathon nodded. They reached the stairwell where Maria and Victor were waiting.

"In the food court, we found a hole in the floor. It drops down a few levels, like three or four, but we could easily scale down those pretty fast, then get back to the stairwell." Jonathon nodded. "Who's this?"

"Leon. I found him in the security guard's office cell." Victor's eyebrows raised in surprise. "That's what I thought too. But he says its tradition or something. Looks like a regular kid to me." Victor shrugged. "Let's go." Victor and Maria led the way to the food court, a big, open banquet-typed area. There was a huge hole in the middle, caused by some sort of collapsing or something. Either way, it made for a nice way down. They each gingerly jumped from that floor down to the next, then the next, then the next, down a total of three floors. Finally, the hole had stopped piercing the ship and could descend no further.

Making their way out of the room they were in, they headed for the stairwell once more. They were able to make their way down a few more flights of stairs. Suddenly, there was a rumbling.

"What's that?" Maria asked quietly.

"You don't think they could've fired the missiles yet, could they?" Jonathon replied. She shook her head.

"No, but they will soon."

"Then what the hell...?" Suddenly, bounding up the stairs came a huge behemoth, ripping up stairwell as it went. "RUN!" The four sprinted down the hall, firing behind them as they did. The hulking monster came after them, ripping up pieces of the ground and hurling them at them, causing huge holes in the floor and walls as it did. Finally, they'd felled the creature, and it fell into one of it's own holes, denting the ground in the floor below. They jumped down the hole, the creature making for a nice landing pad.

"That thing was like a tank!" Leon said. Victor and Jonathon looked to each other, nodding at the name for the new creature, before heading back towards the stairwell. Which they immediately found was a ruined mess of sharp metal and wire, bent to hell.

"We're almost there! What floor are we on?" Maria asked.

"25, by my count," Victor replied. "We are almost there. We just need to find a way down."

"We'll have to head through this," Jonathon said, gesturing towards the metal.

"You sure?" Victor asked cautiously. Jon looked down and nodded.

"Yeah. No other way."

"Alright... I'll take your word for it. I'll go down first, make a nice little pathway. You guys just follow in my steps and make sure not to cut yourselves up too badly." The others nodded. He started down gently, the others following suit as he did. They were getting so close. 25. 26. 27. 28. On the 28th floor, the stairwell returned. They could easily walk down the grated metal stairs until they reached the bottom floor. Right outside the stairwell, they found a Safe Room, leading from the stairs into the hallway beyond.

"We ought to take shelter here, see if they've got anything," Jon said. They nodded and entered the room, sealing the solid iron bar behind them.


	4. Episode Four : The Submarines

**Episode Four**

**The Submarines**

"U.S. Submarine Zero Four, this is civilian Maria Brown, respond."

"_This is U.S. Submarine Zero Four, copy, Maria. What's your status?_"

"We've reached the bottom floor of the boat and we're going to board an old submarine in an attempt to escape. If you bomb the ship, could you blow a hole in the very bottom so we can escape?"

"_Roger, sounds like a solid plan. Be sure to do a decontamination of the submarine before you do._"

"We will. How long do we have left?"

"_We'll give you ten minutes to get aboard the submarine and decontaminate it. Is that enough?_"

"That'll be fine. Thanks guys."

"_No problem. Good luck._" She clicked off the radio and grabbed more supplies, throwing them in her backpack.

"We all ready?" They nodded.

"Let's do this," Jonathon said, sliding the clip into his assault rifle. They nodded. Outside the Safe Room, already a collection of undead had gathered, smelling them and crying out for the meal within. The others nodded. They were all ready. Victor counted to three on his fingers, then kicked the bar up and the door open, scattering the zombies. The four ran in, spraying them with bullets, Jonathon making sure not to use his bad arm too much. They sprinted through, covering their tracks with bullets as Victor and Jon cleaved through the defensive easily with their shotgun/automatic rifle combo.

Kicking open the door to the exhibit, Victor cursed. They hadn't realized how many people had been down here during the initial infection, and thus, how many zombies. The room was FULL of them, almost to the point of being unable to move. They surged toward the door that had just been opened and the two opened fire on the huge wave of undead. Their cursing was drowned out by gunfire and the cries of the hundreds of infected that were falling at their feet.

"Make sure we can still get through! Don't let them pile up too badly!" Victor screamed. Jonathon nodded in agreement as he continued to drill through the zombies. Eventually, as they cut a huge wedge through the undead horde, they saw their object of attention: the submarine. They were finally here.

"There it is!" Jonathon screamed, pointing it out to the others. Their eyes sparkled and they nodded, blood pumping faster and their grip tightening, knowing freedom was so close. Rushing ahead, they put their backs against the metal of the submarine. Guarding it with their lives, Jonathon slowly pried open the hatch.

"Damnit this is heavy!" he cried. He heaved the latch around until the hatch opened and everyone got inside, Victor and Jonathon closing it tightly, locking it.

"Shit!" Maria cried. Everyone looked to her. "We can't drive the damn thing!" Everyone paused for a moment and Leon stepped forward.

"I played a lot of simulators on planes and stuff... and submarines." He sat in the pilot's seat. "Alright, this is the propeller controls... guiding... navigation... oxygen meter... Yeah, I think we're set. Now all we need is-" He was cut off by a boom outside. The ship and submarine rocked violently, and they heard the zombies scream outside. The window showed a bright flash before water started pouring into the room.

"Here we go," Jonathon said, pure adrenaline pumping through his veins. "We're going to make it!" Suddenly, the hatch screeched. Something was attempting to get in. Jonathon kicked it open, finding himself face to face with a Hunter. It screamed and attacked, lunging at him and swiping with its claws. He pushed it away, aiming for it's head with his rifle, filling it with lead.

"Close the damn hatch!" Victor screamed. He did, just in time, as a small trickle of water entered the submarine, the hatch locking and pressurizing so that no more would enter.

"This thing is old, but it should hold out pretty well. It runs on electricity, and they powered it up so it'd look like it worked. We got about a half of a tank. Should be enough to get us to dry land, or at least to the surface so we can call for help. This radio is solar powered, but runs on our reserves if it can find sunlight. We're set!" They sighed in relief, sitting down on the cold metal floor. Leon piloted the submarine up and out of the hole.

"U.S. Submarine Zero Four, this is civilian Maria Brown, do you copy?"

"_Yeah, did your party make it?_"

"We're all here. Our sub is coming out now."

"_Good job! You guys must be real survivalists to make it out of there alive!_"

"You could say that," she smiled.

_"The nearest port is about 50 miles north of your position, think you can make it?"_ She looked to Leon, who took the radio.

"Yo, this is Captain Leon. We got enough electricity to make us about 50 miles north, but that's about all we have energy for."

_"Alright. We'll help you if you don't make it. We'll make sure you get to land. Also, one more thing."_

"Yeah?"

_"The mainland... the infection's already spread there."_ We were stunned.

"Repeat, Zero Four?"

_"I said the mainland's been infected already. Just like the boat."_ Leon swore and slammed his fist onto the dash.

"Alright, thanks for the info, Zero Four. We're headed in anyway."

"_Alright._" He paused. "_Good luck, civilians. You'll need it._"

In that instance where all hope seemed lost, they knew he was absolutely right. They would need as much luck as they could get.


End file.
